Monday, July 22, 2013

When farming is in trouble, we're in trouble

"One strategy would be to promote the use of locally produced compost to
increase the moisture-holding capacity of fields, orchards and
vineyards. In addition to locking carbon in the soil, composting buffers
crop roots from heat and drought while increasing forage and food-crop
yields. By simply increasing organic matter in their fields from 1
percent to 5 percent, farmers can increase water storage in the root
zones from 33 pounds per cubic meter to 195 pounds.

And we have a great source of compostable waste: cities. Since much of
the green waste in this country is now simply generating methane
emissions from landfills, cities should be mandated to transition to
green-waste sorting and composting, which could then be distributed to
nearby farms.

Second, we need to reduce the bureaucratic hurdles to using small- and
medium-scale rainwater harvesting and gray water (that is, waste water
excluding toilet water) on private lands, rather than funneling all
runoff to huge, costly and vulnerable reservoirs behind downstream dams.
Both urban and rural food production can be greatly enhanced through
proven techniques of harvesting rain and biologically filtering gray
water for irrigation. However, many state and local laws restrict what
farmers can do with such water."

Solutions to the problem of climate change for farmers. It's gonna be tough for some types of crops like apple trees that take years to mature. Other crops like corn or potatoes can move north or south depending on how the local climate is changing. But definitely, we don't want laws preventing farmers from making needed adjustments.